The present invention relates to a journal bearing assembly and to a method for fabricating the journal bearing assembly.
Shear shredder machines, briquetting machines, grinding machines, and other types of material processing machines typically use a pair of co-acting, substantially parallel, counter-rotating roller assemblies. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,112 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/032,388 filed Feb. 27, 1998 disclose a modular material processing apparatus that includes a pair of co-acting, substantially parallel, counter-rotating roller assemblies, where each of the roller assemblies includes a substantially cylindrical, material processing roller member mounted to a rotating shaft which extends substantially parallel with the longitudinal sides of the frame of the apparatus. In a shear shredding apparatus the roller member is a stack of cutter discs and associated spacer discs. Each of the roller assemblies are supported onto the frame by a pair of supports, a first support mounted to one lateral end of the frame and a second support is mounted to the opposite lateral end of the frame. Each of the supports include a bearing housing journalling a cylindrical bearing member mounted or keyed to the shaft of the associated roller assembly.
Conventional bearing assemblies for use with such material processing apparatuses commonly utilize roller-bearing components, such as tapered roller bearings. A disadvantage with such roller-bearing components is their expense and relatively short life span. Another disadvantage of such roller-bearing components is that they provide a limited surface area for bearing the load of the rotational member. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a bearing assembly which has a greater life span than the comparably size rollerbearing assemblies, that is less expensive than conventional roller-bearing assemblies, and which provides a greater surface area to bear the load of the rotating members.
Additionally, conventional shear-shredding and other material processing apparatuses utilize stack tighteners on the ends of the rotating shafts, which act to maintain the stack of cutting discs or other material processing discs together in a compact relationship on the shear cartridge or roller assembly. With such an arrangement, a separate bearing member is positioned either axially within the pair of stack tighteners or axially outside of the pair of stack tighteners. Accordingly, the size of the shear-shredding or material processing apparatus is partly dictated by such arrangement.